


The Future is in the Past

by The Last Speecher (HeidiMelone)



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Near Future, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-20
Updated: 2015-12-22
Packaged: 2018-05-02 14:30:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5251748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeidiMelone/pseuds/The%20Last%20Speecher
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dipper and Mabel have grown up and are currently in college, living normal lives.  But when they come back to Gravity Falls, they get swept up in the paranormal activity of the small Oregon town again.  In their search for a screwdriver, they encounter old friends and faces, and realize that growing up doesn’t mean abandoning your childhood.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. My Ex-Wife Still Misses Me

Faint sounds came from the kitchen. Ice cubes clinked against glass; liquid poured. Dipper sat at the table in the living room, staring at a piece of paper he never thought he’d see. He wanted to unsee it, erase it from his memory. But he knew that could never happen. He destroyed the last memory-eraser years ago. A hand pushed the paper off to the side a bit and put a glass half full with amber liquid in front of him. Dipper picked it up and frowned.

“This isn’t what I was expecting.” Mabel slid into the seat across from him and shrugged, a glass full of the same liquid in her hand.

“I figured we could both use something a bit stronger than Mabel Juice right now.”

“You still make that?” Dipper asked, setting down his drink.

“I’m in college, Dipper. I drink three cups of it a day. And that’s when I’m not pulling an all-nighter.” Dipper chuckled.

“That can’t be good for you.”

“Pretty sure exams are worse for my health,” she responded, cracking a smile for the first time in two days. They sat like that for a few minutes, avoiding looking at the piece of paper on the table. Dipper finally took a drink and coughed.

“What is this?”

“Beats me. I found it in the cabinet. I did a smell check. It seems fine.”

“I thought you finally stopped ingesting strange things that you couldn’t identify.”

“Old habits die hard.”

A few more minutes passed. Mabel drained her glass and shook it a bit, clinking the ice cubes against each other. Dipper sighed and pushed his off to the side. Waddles shuffled over and flopped down next to Mabel’s chair. She scratched him absent-mindedly.

“So…”

“Yeah,” Dipper replied, looking down at Stan’s will. “We should…we should probably figure out what we’re going to do.”

“I still can’t believe he’s-”

“Mabel, not now,” Dipper interrupted. “We need to focus. We’ve been mourning for days. Our professors only gave us a week off.” He cleared his throat. “So, Stan left us the shack.”

“Well, technically he left the shack to the two of us and Soos.”

“I know, Mabel. I can read.”

“You don’t have to be so blunt.”

“You don’t have to say something I already know.”

The twins glowered at each other for a minute before sighing and slumping in their seats.

“Who am I kidding? I’m too sad to argue,” Mabel mumbled, tracing a finger through the circle of water her glass left behind.

“Mabel, focus. What are we going to do with the shack?”

“Well-”

“The way I see it, we have two options. One, sell the shack.” Mabel jolted upright and glared at him.

“How could you say that? This shack was his life’s work! Do you realize what it means that he left us in charge of it?”

“Two,” Dipper continued, ignoring his sister’s outburst, “We let Soos take care of the shack.”

“Why are those our only two options? Did you forget the one where we run the shack?”

“Mabel, we’re in college.”

“There’s a college here.”

“Do you really want to trade in your amazing art school for Gravity Falls Community College?”

“If it means we keep the Mystery Shack going, yes!”

“You’re engaged! Wouldn’t moving here screw up your plans?” Mabel rubbed the ring on her left hand subconsciously.

“We’d work something out.” Dipper pushed his chair away from the table and stood up. Mabel tried not to notice that he stood in the same way Stan used to.

“Did you forget the second option? We can let Soos take care of the shack,” he said.

“I talked to him the other day. At the ceremony. He said he wasn’t sure whether he could keep the Mystery Shack going on his own.”

“Why not?”

“He doesn’t think it would be the same without a Pines in charge.”

“What? But that’s…” Dipper trailed off. Mabel sighed and stood up as well. She walked next to her brother and put her hand on his shoulder.

“Option two isn’t really an option,” she said gently. Dipper shrugged off her hand and turned to face her.

“I know that this shack was Stan’s life work. I know he poured his heart and soul into it. But think. Would he really want us to effectively erase everything we’ve done? Would he want us to leave behind the lives we’ve built back home? Our lives are going somewhere. We finally know what we’re doing! I’ve found my calling and you’ve found yours. Would Stan really want us to ignore it to run a tourist trap that started out as a front for a portal between dimensions?”

“We have friends here. And memories, too!”

“We have those back home. And anyways, just because the Mystery Shack isn’t a Mystery Shack anymore doesn’t mean we can’t visit.” Mabel turned away from him.

“We saw so much weirdness and magic here in Gravity Falls. I don’t like the idea of leaving it all behind.” This time, Dipper put his hand on her shoulder.

“We wouldn’t be leaving it all behind.”

“Yes, we would. Gravity Falls won’t be the same without the Mystery Shack. It’s already lost our Grunkle.”

“Mabel, what do you want to do?”

“…I don’t know. I don’t want to lose the shack. I don’t want to close that chapter of our lives forever. But we really don’t have any options, do we?” she asked, turning to face him. Dipper shook his head.

“I don’t think we do.”

“Then…I suppose we can leave the shack to Soos. He’ll take good care of it.” Mabel walked back to the table and gulped down the rest of Dipper’s drink. “Tomorrow we’ll talk to him and go through the shack. You’ll probably want to grab the journals, and I called dibs on that dinosaur head years ago.” Dipper smiled half-heartedly as he watched his sister go up to the attic, Waddles trailing after her.

“Yeah, you did.” He turned out the light and walked past Stan’s old bedroom. “I just thought someone would always stop you from taking it.” He closed the door.


	2. Perfectly Logical Explanation

Dipper awoke to the smell of bacon and pancakes. He opened the door and exited the room that used to have the electron carpet, trudging past the now closed door to Stan’s old bedroom. In the kitchen, there was a breakfast plate waiting for him. The arrangement of the food in the shape of a smiley face was something Mabel would do, but she couldn’t pull off bacon quite yet. Two distinctive voices carried through the still air and he followed them to the porch, where Soos and Mabel were talking. For once, neither of them were goofing off or being loud.

_That’s probably not a good thing,_ Dipper thought to himself. 

“Oh, hey dude,” Soos said amicably. “Mabel and I were just talking about our respective love lives. It’s like, the weirdest thing how we both ended up with someone whose name begins with the letter M.”

“I guess,” Dipper said half-heartedly, plopping onto the bench next to them. He began to eat.

“Good stuff, right?” Soos asked, smiling. “Abeulita insisted on sending food over. I told her you guys could fend for yourselves, but you know how grandmothers are!”

“I thought this bacon was too good to be Mabel’s.”

“Hey, I’m working on it.”

They sat in a content silence for a little bit while Dipper finished his breakfast. It was a bright, clear morning. One perfect for just about anything. 

“It’s kinda weird.” The Pines twins turned to look at Soos. The statement had seemingly come out of nowhere. “I mean, I looked through that will so much, and there were only three people Stan left anything to.”

“And those same people are on this porch,” Dipper said.

“I don’t understand it. He has family other than you guys.”

“They don’t get along.”

“But for reals, why didn’t he leave anything to Ford? I know that they hadn’t talked in a while, but they’re still brothers. Heck, does Ford even know Stan’s dead?” A woodpecker drilled in the distance. 

“Ford made it pretty clear he didn’t care about Stan,” Mabel said softly.

“Yeah, but shouldn’t he have the right to know that his brother’s dead?”

“Ford ran off years ago and hasn’t contacted anyone since then. If he cared about Stan, he would have reached out at some point. If he doesn’t care, he doesn’t have the right,” Dipper said firmly.

“There’s a reason we don’t talk about Ford anymore, Soos,” Mabel said as gently as she could. She’d asked herself dozens of times how Ford could’ve done that, but there wasn’t a good answer.

“Right.” They sat for a little while longer, but the silence was no longer comfortable. Mabel sighed and stood up, shielding her eyes from the glare of the sun. 

“We’d better get that dinosaur skull loaded up in your truck, Dipper. It’ll be a lot easier to do it now, when we’ve got Soos here.” Dipper stood up too and followed her inside.

“We can’t load it up, not yet. I need to measure it first.”

“What, are you worried it won’t fit in your truck?”

“I need to know its exact dimensions so I can fit everything in optimally.”

“You are such a nerd. The best way to pack is to just shove everything in and close the door before it falls out.”

“You might be able to live your life like that, but I can’t.”

“Fine, I’ll go look for a tape measure.”

"I think I saw one in the gift shop,” Soos said, carrying their plates into the kitchen and turning on the sink.

“Thanks, Soos!” the twins called out. They walked into the gift shop and looked around, trying to ignore the white sheets covering everything.

“There it is!” Dipper said, pointing to a high shelf. “I’ll get it.”

“No you won’t,” Mabel said, nudging him off to the side. “I’m the taller one, remember?” She stood on her tiptoes and barely managed to grab it.

“How could I forget?” Dipper mumbled as he followed her back into the living room. Mabel plopped down on the floor next to the dinosaur skull. Once he joined her, she handed it to him. “Kind of a weird tape measure,” he said absentmindedly, noting the strange make of it and the symbol on the side. He stretched out the tape.

“Dipper!” Startled, he let go. He felt Mabel grab his shoulder as the world disappeared in a very familiar way.

“Mabel, what’s the matter?” Soos asked as he poked his head out of the kitchen. “Mabel? Dipper?” But he was talking to an empty room.

 

Mabel and Dipper landed on grass with a solid _oomph._

“Where are we?” Dipper asked, sitting up, rubbing his head.

“Once you starting using the tape measure, I realized what it was. And for what it is, that’s not the right question.” Mabel was clearly choosing her words very carefully. The tape measure had fallen out of Dipper’s hands when they arrived and he had landed on it in a very uncomfortable position. He picked it up and suddenly recognized the logo on the side. “The right question is: When are we?” 

“Ah, crap!”

“Bro, chill. All we need to do is use it again.” Dipper looked closely at the tape measure, noticing how it had partially come apart.

“Actually, I think we need to fix it up, and then we can use it to go back.” 

“How broken is it?”

“Not too bad. Could be worse.” He fiddled with it a bit while Mabel gazed at their surroundings. 

“This forest looks familiar.”

“In order to fix it, I’ll need a screwdriver or something,” Dipper said, barely paying attention to what Mabel was saying. “Where would we find one?” 

“The shack has one we could use, if we could find our way back.”

“Where are you going?” They both looked up at the sound of voices in the forest, getting closer.

“I heard someone.” Dipper caught Mabel’s eyes and mouthed a word their Grunkle Stan would’ve loved.

“It could be gnomes, or ghosts, or shapeshifters!”

“It could also be unicorns, or fairies, or trolls!”

“Since when are trolls a good thing, Mabel?”

“Since always, Dipper!” Two twelve year olds finally crashed through the undergrowth and into the glen. The two pairs of twins stared at each other. 

“Who are you?” the girl in a sweater asked. Dipper and Mabel looked at each other.

“That’s a long story,” they said together, the exact same thought running through their minds.

_This should be interesting._


	3. Have You Met My Family?

“Why is it a long story?” Dipper asked.

“It’s just a really involved question,” the female stranger said. “How much do you want to know? Because asking someone who they are is kind of weird when you first meet them.” She looked at man next to her and shrugged. “Unless you want to start.” With an expression like a deer in the headlights on his face, he reached up to brush back his hair nervously. The woman stopped him. “No,” she said gently.

“Well, no, what I meant was, what are your names?” Dipper asked, feeling a bit agitated.

“My name’s Tyrone and this is my twin sister Ursa,” the man said. Ursa glared at him.

“That’s such a pretty name!” Mabel said. “And you’re twins? So are we! This is such a weird coincidence!” Ursa smiled at Mabel.

“Yeah, ‘coincidence’,” Dipper said suspiciously. “So, what are you guys doing in the middle of the forest?”

“Our car broke down,” Ursa said before Tyrone could speak. “We went to go look for help but ended up getting lost.”

“We know a mechanic,” Mabel said. “He might be able to help you out.”

“Soos is a handyman, not a mechanic.”

“Yeah, but he does stuff with the golf cart all the time.”

“…That’s a good point.”

“We can actually fix it on our own,” Tyrone interjected. “We just need a screwdriver.”

“A screwdriver? To fix a car?” Dipper asked. Tyrone glanced at Ursa for a moment.

“Yes.” 

“Well, we can get you a screwdriver, but you’ll have to return it,” Mabel said. “Grunkle Stan wouldn’t be pleased if we let some strangers take a screwdriver from the Shack.” They both noticed the brief expression of sadness that flickered across the faces of the older pair of twins. Ursa and Tyrone stood up.

“Lead on, then, kids,” Ursa said. 

 

“‘Ursa’? Really?” Mabel whispered angrily to Dipper as they walked behind their younger selves. Younger Mabel was humming some sort of song.

“I panicked, okay? The Big Dipper is part of Ursa Major.”

“I know that, I took Astronomy last semester. You chose your favorite name, why didn’t you choose mine?”

“Because Tyrone is less conspicuous than Lady Star.” Mabel rolled her eyes.

“Whatever. How are we going to do this?”

“I figure, we don’t go into the Shack, we avoid any contact with anyone, especially Stan, and then we fix the time machine and go back home.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

“Where are you guys from?” the younger Dipper asked suddenly. 

“I’ll handle this,” Mabel said to her twin. “Why are you asking?”

“If you’re not from Gravity Falls, that would explain why you went in the forest. The people around here don’t really go in the forest unless they’re a lumberjack of something.”

“We’re from San Diego.”

“Really? We’re from Peidmont!” younger Mabel said excitedly.

“Cool.” Younger Dipper stopped suddenly.

“Wait, I know where we are now.” He looked around and then pointed in a new direction. “The Shack is that way.” They started walking again.

“You were lost before?” Dipper asked incredulously.

“We prefer the term ‘directionally challenged’,” younger Mabel said. “We went into the forest this morning to try to find some fairies, but all we saw were gnomes. The gnomes ended up chasing us and we got lost.”

“Gnomes, huh?” Mabel said with a slight smile.

“Yeah. The worst part was that we didn’t get any sort of magical things. Sometimes we accidentally get chased into a place with a magic flower, or a magic harp, or magic shoes.”

“You kids get chased often?” Dipper asked. The younger pair of twins shrugged.

“Depends on your definition of ‘often’,” younger Dipper said. They’d finally reached the edge of the woods. The four of them blinked at how bright it was suddenly. What trickled through the canopy in the forest didn’t really compare to the unobscured sun. Mabel heard a small giggle and caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of her eye.

“Hey, Mabel?” Her younger self turned to face her. “If I were you, next time I went searching for fairies, I’d go that way,” she said and gestured to the general area she’d seen the fairy. 

“Why?”

“That just seems like a place a fairy would hang out.”

“Hmm, you do have a point,” younger Mabel said thoughtfully. “That does seem like one. Good eye, lady.” Mabel laughed.

“If you guys come inside the Shack with us, we’ll see if we can find you a screwdriver,” younger Dipper said to the older twins. Dipper rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.

“We need to come inside?” he asked.

“Look, I know it seems like a death trap, but it’s actually a tourist trap,” younger Mabel said assuredly. “There’s some cool stuff inside, and Grunkle Stan wouldn’t be happy if we let two potential customers borrow something without seeing the gift shop.” Mabel looked at Dipper.

“Guess there’s no way out of this,” she said softly.

“Yeah,” he muttered. He looked at the younger twins. “Okay, we’ll check out this gift shop you insist is so great. But,” he kneeled down to their eye level, “only if you get us that screwdriver. We have to get back home soon. There are some people waiting for us.” The twelve-year-olds nodded. 

“You got it, dude.” They ran up to the Shack. Mabel and Dipper followed at a more sedate pace.

“Man, I can’t remember the last time I had the energy to run everywhere,” Dipper said thoughtfully to his twin. She stopped and looked at him.

“This is weird, right?” she said quietly. “Like, really weird. More than the average amount of weird for Gravity Falls.”

“We thought meeting Soos in the past was weird, but this takes the cake,” Dipper responded in the same tone. Mabel sighed.

“I never said this before, but back in our time, whenever I woke up in the Shack, I expected to hear Stan puttering around downstairs. Whenever I walked into the gift shop, I was surprised at how there was no one in there.”

“I know what you mean. So, maybe this was a good thing to happen. One last hurrah before the Mystery Shack closes forever.” 

“Yeah.”

“Hey, are you coming?” They looked up. The Mabel and Dipper of 2012 were standing just outside the Shack. 

“Yeah, sorry.” They walked up the steps to the door. Younger Dipper pushed it open. The bell jangled. 

“Welcome to the Mystery Shack!”


	4. Both a Blessing and a Curse

Mabel and Dipper stared wide-eyed at the merchandise. Mabel walked over to the row of Stan bobbleheads. She nudged one with a finger and smiled. 

“Cute.”

“Don’t let Grunkle Stan hear you say that. He’ll convince you to buy like twenty,” younger Dipper said.

“How much are they?” Mabel asked, patting her pockets, looking for her wallet. 

“Five dollars,” Wendy said from her position by the cash register. Dipper froze at the sound of her voice.

“I thought they were ten dollars,” younger Mabel said. “Did Grunkle Stan knock down the price?”

“Nah, but I like the look of these guys.” Wendy put aside her magazine and looked at Mabel and Dipper intently. “You’re not from around here.”

“Yeah, we’re just passing through on our way back home,” Dipper said. Mabel was very pleased to see that somehow, he wasn’t being awkward. 

“Uh huh. And where’s home?”

“San Diego.”

“Cool.” Wendy looked harder at Dipper, a small frown on her face. “You look kind of familiar. Have you ever been around here before?”

“No.”

“You sure?”

“Uh…”

“Tyrone, here’s the screwdriver you wanted,” younger Dipper interrupted, shoving a screwdriver into his older self’s hand, his face bright red. “So maybe you should get out of here and do whatever you were going to do with it.” Dipper struggled not to laugh, suddenly realizing how jealous he used to be over Wendy.

“Okay, but after my sister buys one of those bobbleheads.” He looked over at Mabel. “You got enough money?” 

“I think so.” Mabel grabbed one and then slapped the money down on the counter. “Let’s get going, bro.” 

“Wendy!” Everyone jumped a bit at the sound of Stan’s voice echoing from the museum. “You better not be knocking down prices again! I can hear people not being ripped off!” They could hear his loud footsteps approaching. 

“Thanks again, little dudes. We’ll return it,” Mabel said. Her brother grabbed her hand and they rushed out of the Shack. They sat down on the same porch they had eaten breakfast on that morning. Dipper took the tape measure out of his pocket and started tinkering with it. 

“Why’d you buy one of those little figurines? We’ve got a whole box back home.”

“If I got one from the old gift shop stock, I’d feel like I was stealing. This way, I can support Grunkle Stan before he, y’know…” Mabel trailed off, then cleared her throat abruptly. “Anyways, I always liked these. A lot cuter than the real thing.”

“Smaller, too.” Dipper and Mabel chuckled. 

“Oh, hey Mabel and Dipper!” They turned around.

“Soos?” Soos frowned at them, rubbing his chin.

“Something’s different.” A moment passed. “Dipper, where’s your hat?”

“Uh…”

“Wait a sec,” Soos said and ran inside. He came outside a few minutes later and put the distinctive pine tree hat on Dipper’s head. “There you go. Later, dudes!”

“Later, Soos!” Mabel called after him. She looked at her brother. “So, that happened.”

“I’m pretty sure Soos defies a lot of the rules of reality.”

“True.” They sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes while Dipper worked on the tape measure more. Mabel took off Dipper’s hat and put it on, then fiddled with her new bobblehead.

“Fixed!” Dipper said triumphantly. He showed his sister the tape measure.

“Cool.” She sighed. “This has been kinda fun, hasn’t it? Seeing everyone and how the Shack used to be.”

“But the longer we stay here, the more chance there is of accidentally altering the timeline.” 

“I know.” 

“And don’t come back until you’ve hung up those signs!” Mabel and Dipper turned at the sound of their Grunkle Stan’s voice. They caught a glimpse of part of his face as he shoved their younger selves out the door. 

“You got it, Grunkle Stan!” younger Mabel said cheerfully. She caught sight of Mabel and Dipper. “Tyrone and Ursa! You’re still here?”

“We fixed our car, so we wanted to return the screwdriver.” Mabel nudged Dipper and he handed off the utensil. 

“That was fast.”

“It didn’t really take long because we’re actually witches.”

“Really? I _knew_ there was something off about you!” younger Dipper said.

“Relax kid,” Mabel responded, smiling, “I was joking.”

“Sorry if our Grunkle Stan scared you earlier. He’s a good guy, deep down,” younger Mabel said. 

“We weren’t scared,” Dipper said indignantly. 

“You jumped like a foot in the air and then ran out of the door like you were being chased,” younger Dipper pointed out.

“That’s a fair point,” Dipper conceded. “You called him your grunkle?”

“Grunkle's short for great-uncle. But he’s a mediocre boss.” Dipper and Mabel chuckled.

“You just have the one great-uncle?”

“Well,” younger Mabel said conspiratorially, “don’t tell anyone, but we actually have two. They’re twins!”

“Mabel!” younger Dipper said. “It’s a secret!”

“They’re from out of town. Who are they going to tell?”

“Twins, huh? That’s cool. Is your other grunkle as scary?” Dipper asked.

“Yeah, but in a different way.” Mabel’s watch beeped. She glanced down at it, a frown on her face.

“We need to go pick up the urn,” she said sadly. She looked at her brother. “We should get going.”

“Urn?”

“Our uncle died a couple weeks ago,” Mabel informed them. “We’ve been in charge of taking care of everything, including the funeral things. But he didn’t want to be buried. He wanted to be cremated.”

“That’s so sad!” younger Mabel shouted. “Is it at least a pretty urn?”

“We designed one together for him.”

“That’s really cool.”

“That’s sweet of you to think. But we really should get going. People are waiting for us.” Dipper and Mabel stood up. 

“Everything will be okay!” younger Mabel said, embracing Dipper. Dipper smiled.

“Thanks, kid.”

“Why are you wearing my hat?” younger Dipper asked, looking at Mabel.

“Some guy stopped by and handed it to us.”

“People just really like giving us free stuff, I guess.” Younger Mabel hugged her older self as well. When she stopped, Mabel and Dipper looked at each other.

“You ready, bro-bro?”

“Yep.” Mabel and Dipper stood up and walked toward the road. Dipper took the time travel tape measure out of his pocket. They looked back at their past selves, which were watching them curiously. Mabel waved goodbye to them and then put a hand on her brother’s shoulder. Dipper stretched out the tape measure. It snapped back. The world disappeared in a flash of light.

 

Dipper and Mabel stared at where Tyrone and Ursa had disappeared.

“That was not a car,” Dipper said slowly. 

“That looked like one of those time travel things,” Mabel said thoughtfully. She gasped. “Dipper, what if they were time travelers?”

“That’s possible.”

“Kids, what’re you doing?” They looked up at Stan, who had exited the Shack while they were distracted. “Hang those signs up and then we’ll head out to Greasy’s Diner.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. But hurry up, before I change my mind.”

“Okay, Grunkle Stan!” They ran off to hang up the signs, stopping momentarily in the place the strangers had disappeared from.

“Do you think they were really time travelers? Like that Blarblar guy?” Mabel asked Dipper. He shrugged.

“It makes sense to me. But…”

“What?”

“I wonder who they really were.”


	5. Onwards, Aoshima

“Mabel? Dipper?” Mabel and Dipper brushed themselves off and stood up. 

“We’re out here, Soos!” Mabel called, cupping her hands around her mouth. Soos ran outside and stopped in front of them, panting.

“What was that about?” he asked. “I heard a yell, and then you weren’t in the gift shop anymore.”

“It’s complicated,” Dipper said, looking at his sister with a smile. She was still wearing the pine tree hat. “But we’re here.” 

“Okay, dudes. Did you still want me to load that dinosaur head in your truck?” Soos asked, slightly confused, noting the hat Mabel was now wearing.

“Not right now. We’ve got to pick up Stan’s urn.”

“Oh, okay.”

“We’ll let you know when we get back.”

“You got it, dudes. But, uh, can we talk about what you guys are going to do with the shack after?”

“Yep.” They watched Soos get into his truck and drive away, then they got in Dipper’s truck. After Mabel buckled her seatbelt, she turned to her brother.

“Do you still want to leave the shack to Soos?” Dipper started the engine. 

“Why would our little adventure change my mind?” She shrugged.

“I don’t know about you, but it reminded me of how weird this place is. And how normal everywhere else is.”

“So?”

“You want to start your own ghost-hunting show, but you haven’t been able to find them anywhere, have you?”

“They exist! I’ve seen them! You once got possessed by one!”

“Yeah, when we were here.” She watched Dipper’s face as what she’d said sunk in. “Seems like a ghost-hunting show would do pretty well here in Gravity Falls.” She looked back at the shack, rapidly getting smaller as they drove away. “And who knows, maybe Grunkle Stan’s spirit is still there.”

“Pfft, yeah, right.”

“Are you sure he’s not?” Dipper was silent. “But even if he wasn’t, the fact remains, Gravity Falls is the only place you’ve ever seen ghosts. And you _have_ looked.”

“Yeah,” Dipper said as he turned onto the street that ran past the cemetery. “You’ve got a point.” They pulled up in front of the Valentino Funeral Home. He turned off the engine and looked at his sister. “If we do hold onto the shack, we can’t do anything with it until we finish school. Stan wouldn’t have wanted us to put our lives on hold for that old building.”

“I know.”

“And that’s a big ‘if’”.

“Mmhmm.” She smirked at him. Dipper rolled his eyes. 

 

Mabel closed the door and turned the sign over. She leaned against the door and slid down onto the floor. Waddles shuffled next her and laid his head down on her lap. She smiled and scratched him behind his ears. The door bulged against her back.

“Mabel, move!” She scooted to the side so she was no longer preventing Dipper from coming inside. He barreled through, weighed down by his ghost hunting equipment. He rushed past her. She heard a crash.

“You all right?” Mabel called after him.

“Yeah, just give me a sec!” A few minutes later, he came back into the gift shop, carrying just his laptop and camera. He joined her on the floor.

“Any luck today?”

“Some. Not as much as yesterday, though.” He took the SD card out of his camera and inserted it into the computer, beginning to transfer his pictures and videos. “How was your day?”

“Pretty good. As Grunkle Stan would say, I fleeced a lot of rubes today. It’s tiring, though, running this place, even part-time.”

“If you need me to, I can cover some of your shifts. You’ve covered enough of mine.”

“I am eager to continue working on my current art project.”

“I can’t believe you convinced those gnomes to pose for you.”

“It was a monetary transaction. I paid them in squirrels.”

“So do you want me to cover for you tomorrow?”

“Nah, you’re in the middle of a commission. Wednesdays are slow anyways.”

“You just jinxed it, you know. Tomorrow’s going to be the busiest day ever.” Mabel laughed. Dipper’s laptop beeped. It had finished transferring all of his files.

“Dude, let me see your ghosty pictures,” Mabel said, grabbing his laptop.

“Mabel!” Dipper grabbed his laptop back and pulled up the files. He turned the laptop so they both could see it. “I think this ghost is a Category 3, your average poltergeist. But I’m still working on its motivation for staying here.”

“Why don’t you ask it?”

“I tried, but it just got angry and threw things at me.”

“Sounds like you have to do some research.”

“Yeah.”

“See, I don’t have to do that. I chose the better career path.”

“I kind of like the research part.”

“Nerd!” They looked through his pictures together for a little while. “This weekend, we’re going to check out that place that Soos heard weird sounds in, right?”

“If I manage to take care of this poltergeist by then, yes.”

“Maybe I should tag along tomorrow. Ghosts like me.”

“I’ve noticed that.”

“Guess I’m just irresistible.”

“Oh my god.” Mabel’s phone rang. 

“Dang, I’ve got to take this.”

“Fiancé again?”

“Yeah. The move next week is making him nervous. His first experience in Gravity Falls wasn’t that great.”

“I remember.” Mabel answered her phone.

“Hey, babe,” she said and walked outside. Dipper closed his laptop and stood up, about to head into his room to do some heavy-duty data analysis. He patted Waddles on the head on his way out of the room. He stopped for a moment to look at Stan’s urn, proudly displayed in the gift shop with a sign proclaiming “Not for sale. Unless you can make a good offer.” He could practically hear Stan’s voice.

“No refunds!” Dipper chuckled softly and continued walking. Once he reached Stan’s old room, he frowned.

“Who turned on the light?” he mumbled to himself. He looked at the room, organized and clean in a way it had never been when Stan was alive. Stan’s old 8-ball cane was leaning against the wall. “Was that there before?” he wondered out loud. Dipper picked it up. Somehow, it felt right.   
_This shouldn’t just sit around, gathering dust,_ he thought. _I’ll hold onto it for a little while._

Then he turned off the light.


End file.
